3 Quilt Tops ready for quilting!

Well, I didn't get to do my teal blocks Saturday or during the week last week like I intended but I did sew all week.  Friday night, I finished putting together my Friendship Star quilt and I must say that I am so pleased with it.  I have never used black to sash anything with and I really like how it looks. The quilt is made up of big friendship star block (12 inch finished) and the borders are 6 1/2" borders with 6 1/2" friendship stars on the corners.  Some of the 12 inch blocks were birthday blocks from many years ago that I received from my quilting group.  I made a lot of them myself to make the quilt as big as I wanted.  

 

 

I found out something lately that took me by surprise.  I finally realized that the thing I like least about quilting is putting borders on.  I like making blocks and putting sashing on. I like binding and quilting but I never realized that the biggest thing that bothers me or stops me from finishing is the borders.  I can be almost finished with a project and I'll put it up for awhile and not finish it. When I look at my project lists, a lot of the unfinished projects just need a final border to be finished.  Hmm, I made up my mind when I realized this that I'm going to stop procrastinating and get over this obstacle.  I pulled two more projects out Saturday and started pulling fabric for them.  I was going to work on them Saturday but didn't get a chance.  I went to sew with a few friends at the church and we worked on charity quilts.  So, when I finally got home, I cut the borders for two of the quilts that were almost finished and started putting the borders on them.  I finished these two quilt tops up Sunday afternoon and they are both now ready for quilting.....I was so pleased with myself and so glad I was able to sew and get these together over the weekend.  So, for the weekend I finished three quilt tops!  Woo hoo, I love it. It was good to get these done.   Do you have a hang up or something that stops you from completing your projects, or is it just me?    Now that it's finally dawned on me that this is one of the things I don't like, I'm going to make sure this doesn't cause me anymore problems.  After all, it's just another step in the process and shouldn't be a stumbling block and I'm going to really work on not letting it affect the process.


   

Friendship Stars and Carolina Chain

Ahhh, scrappy Saturday, I love it.  I got to get up this morning and go to my sewing room and sew, sew, sew.  I don't always get to do that on Saturdays as I keep the grandbaby but today was an exception.  I pulled out an old UFO that I've been thinking about and decided it was time to put it together.  Alot of these blocks were given to me from people in my quilting group. One year we decided to make blocks and give to the members during their birthday month. All year long we made the friendship star block. I got mine the month of my birthday and just put them up and never did anything with them.  These blocks have been laying around for about 5 years or more so I decided it was time to put them together.  I laid them out and decided I needed more, so since it was blue this month for the rainbow challenge I rummaged through my scraps and pulled out some bright blues.  I made eleven blocks today(they weren't all blue) and now it will be big enough for a full size bed...I'm going to put black sashing in between these blocks to make them stand out. I think they will look great and I'll start doing that this week...I'll show you more as it progresses.  These are big friendship stars, they are 12 1/2" blocks and were easy and fun to make.

I really like the pinky one above as it has a fairy in the middle block, so cute.

Here's the layout I started working with. It was 5 x 7 for a while this morning but then I decided it needed another row.  Now I have enough for it to be 6 X 7 and like I said, I'll be putting sashing in between too... 

 

 

 

Last night I went and sewed with some friends at the church and I put my Carolina Chain blocks together. I laid these out this morning to see how many more I needed.  So far I have 19 blocks made and I need probably 21 more blocks so I'll be working on more of these too.  I am enjoying seeing this one come together too. I know this one is going to be great once it's all together but I have alot more work to do on it.

 

Ok, gotta stop now and cook.  I hope you are getting some sewing time in this weekend, til next time, happy stitching!

 

 

Friendship Star Quilt

Here is a picture of the quilt my small group is doing. You remember I told you about an exchange we had last week. We exchanged floral fabrics, 16 people exchanged 4 fabrics in each bag. You end up with 64 different fabrics. (You only need 63 fabrics.) You make 31 stars and 32 Chain Blocks...Should go fairly quickly. Til next time....

Small Friendship Group Meeting, Another Project and Quilt Show

Last night, I went to my small group meeting. I call it small as it is one of about 14 or 15 friendship groups that are part of the Dallas Quilt Guild. I have been going to this group since 1992 and I have learned so much from these ladies. We have ummmm, about 40 women in our group. The group is made up of absolute beginners to blue ribbon winners. We have a wide range of talent in our group. It is so much fun to be around these ladies. We met at one of the quilt shops in our area last night. We normally meet at a church during the year, but summer months we get to meet at LQS's to shop and get demos from those shops. We have demos or programs every month in our meeting but not shopping. This is a bonus. Last night we swapped floral fabrics. 16 of us swapped fabrics. Each person had to put 4 pieces of different floral fabrics in 16 bags. We then exchanged the bags. We will be making friendships stars and an alternate block that is the single irish chain block. The quilt is very sweet looking and should be pretty quick and easy to do. Another project, but this one should not take too long to do. It has quick sewing shortcuts. I will take pictures and post these when I do them. It won't be this weekend as I already have too many things to do. One of those is going to a quilt show in Mesquite, Tx. Mesquite is a suburb of Dallas and the Mesquite Guild has a show each year. Small guild and small show but some very lovely quilts and some great quilters! The show doesn't have alot of vendors this year because it is the same weekend as Martha Pullen. Believe me, she be pullen the vendors away for that one! I will take some pics and post them of the quilts in the show. Got to go for now, til next time....